Becoming a software engineer from a Maths degree?

Ohnoezfail

Ohnoezfail

Ohnoezfail

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How hard is it, if you have a good degree in Maths rather than SE/CS?

What would be the best route from here?

Is it frowned upon compared to SE/CS when it comes to this?

I'm in my 2nd year and have recently thought about this profession, mainly because I don't really enjoy the idea of having a career in finance or teaching. :o
 
I went into programming with a degree in Maths. In my experience, it's harder to get a first job under your belt without a computing qualification but once you've got the experience most employers will consider you a more desirable candidate than candidates with CS/SE. This is partly, I think, because Maths is considered a "harder" degree and partly because they think your maths skills will be useful.
 
My friend has a degree in maths, i introduced C++ to him and now he works as a software engineer on good money.

Learn C++ and then apply for jobs :P

detailed programming involves a lot of maths, so you would find it easy
 
Assuming you enjoy programming then it's an ideal path for getting into all sorts of graduate/junior level software engineering jobs.
 
If you have a mathematical mind, you'll probably pick up programming quite easily. If fact, there may well be some maths-based programming in your course at some point?

You would be limited to the sorts of jobs that you could go for though compared to somebody with a CS degree.
For example, I am a software developer and i (disappointingly) dont need to use any maths at all really (with the exception of adding up totals and calculating averages, etc)
 
Ohnoezfail said:
How hard is it, if you have a good degree in Maths rather than SE/CS?
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Probably better to study maths and pick up the coding side of things than the other way around. (If you were looking to combine both that is)

I'm in my 2nd year and have recently thought about this profession, mainly because I don't really enjoy the idea of having a career in finance or teaching. :o
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If you'd gone for the 'something mathematical' in finance option then you'd have likely needed to learn to code anyway.

Check out the below modules - they do it better than most UK universities:

http://see.stanford.edu/see/courses.aspx

You find quite a few courses on coursera.org too - might be worth looking at the intro to computer science ones above during any spare time you have or during the summer.

If you're doing a few statistics modules then machine learning could be an interesting area to look at...
 
the company I work for writes software that designs and analyses gearboxes (amongst other things), we employ physics, maths and engineering graduates as well as hardcore software bods. so no i don't think it will be too much of a problem :)
 
There's 5 software developers in the company that I work for: two physicists, one biologist, one mathematician and one computer scientist.

I got onto a graduate scheme that didn't mind what kind of numerate degree you had, it was more about aptitude. A basic knowledge of C/C++ was useful though.
 
I've found mathematicians make for some of the best programmers I've come across. You need to enjoy it though mate :)
 
dowie said:
If you're doing a few statistics modules then machine learning could be an interesting area to look at...
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Thanks for the link, I'll surely check out that stuff when I have more time!

I'm not doing any statistics this year :o I'm choosing mainly Maths and Physics modules, with one module in Programming, and one in Algorithms this year.

Tunney said:
I got onto a graduate scheme that didn't mind what kind of numerate degree you had, it was more about aptitude. A basic knowledge of C/C++ was useful though.
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What graduate scheme was this?



Looks like I'll be okay, but getting experience or onto a graduate scheme in the first place is going to be tough looking at the climate lately. :o
 
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I did Maths/Physics and was offered a grad software job (didn't get my 2.1 though :mad: )
I know loads more people who have done the same, its one of the more standard career maths for a mathematician/physicist these days.

Do all the programming modules you can do, and if possible learn more than one language. You should stand a good chance at getting a position.
 
Mr Jack said:
I went into programming with a degree in Maths. In my experience, it's harder to get a first job under your belt without a computing qualification but once you've got the experience most employers will consider you a more desirable candidate than candidates with CS/SE.
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I agree with this

Diagro said:
detailed programming involves a lot of maths, so you would find it easy
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I don't agree with this.
 
Amleto said:
Your particular role may involve maths, but programming per se doesn't require anything more than trivial arithmetic.
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I both agree and disagree to an extent - you don't necessarily need a mathematical background to be a programmer however programming is inextricably linked with mathematics. While lots of programmers might just be making use of libraries etc... someone had to implement those libraries. Tis generally a good idea to have some knowledge of algorithms .
 
dowie said:
I both agree and disagree to an extent - you don't necessarily need a mathematical background to be a programmer however programming is inextricably linked with mathematics. While lots of programmers might just be making use of libraries etc... someone had to implement those libraries. Tis generally a good idea to have some knowledge of algorithms .
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Only in terms of memory addresses. All that is required is gcse arithmetic.

Writing mathematical libraries in a language does not inextricable link maths to programming
 
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